The human species survived as hunter-gatherers for 99.8% of its existence. In the .2% of our time on Earth since, we have become a globally dominant civilization capable of destroying our planet — the only home we know.

The 2011 documentary Surviving Progress (inspired by Ronald Wright's book, A Short History of Progress and now streaming on Netflix) looks at the reasons why our advances have led us to this destructive point. One hypothesis is that our brains are still in hunter-gatherer mode, wired for quick decisions. As a result, we fail to think about long-term consequences and and future generations.

The other reason for the potential destruction of the earth and humankind as we know it: change, and as we can see, not all change is good. Change brought Rome to its knees, decimated the Amazon rainforest, and might soon lead to our demise.